Bruins sign Mitchell Miller to an ELC - now "parting ways"

joe dokes

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NO, NO, NO!. I am NOT giving the benefit of the doubt to Miller or his family or defending them. They bear full responsibility for what happened to Isiah. PERIOD.

My comments were meant to offer another possible point of origin for where Miller heard/learned the N word and "cotton picking," and I still maintain that it is equally likely that he learned them from peers, friends, or hockey locker room buddies. Pointing that out doesn't mean I am going out of my way to defend the kid or his family, or provide them with benefit of doubt. If anything, it demonstrates that this is a much deeper community issue.
FWIW--I'm with you on this point. We dont know. The parents/family seem to be shitheels. But first-hearing "bad words" on a playground or camp will always be a thing.
 

4 6 3 DP

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First of all adding my appreciation to the post @Myt1 made. I disagree profusely that this was just a parsing of words - presumably Miller is fighting to get a pro hockey career and his good name and the fact that there is no information to refute what @Myt1 posted speaks for itself - this is a kid whose family and environment has convinced him that because he's a good hockey player that he can BS his way through an apology and the hockey world will take him back with open arms. It is my deep hope that after seeing what Bruins fans did in response to this signing that no other team will attempt the same.

A couple other thoughts:

1. I think Neely and Sweeney saw this through the lens of Tyreek Hill and Mark Wahlberg - both people whose despicable transgressions are completely ignored these days because of their excellence - they figured a minority of protesters would say their piece and get a night or two of attention and then everyone would move onto the next crisis in the world. It is a testament that Bruins fans, players, maybe advertisers made it clear that this wasn't going to quiet down easily. It is also a testament to Isaiah's mother who got an outlet and wouldn't let it go - not sure this story gets the legs it does without her speaking on behalf of her son. I'd like to think it would, but she definitely made sure it did.

2. I don't think this is a story about the Bruins talking to the Meyer-Crothers family. It is obvious that Isaiah's mother feels (justifiably) the way she does, and the media, particularly the Athletic, has given her a podium to do so. Had the Bruins done basic level due diligence, they wouldn't have ever needed to talk to the family. It's a cop out for Neely to say the issue was talking to the family. They knew the whole story and they didn't think people would care that much.

3. I don't think this is a story about a bad 14 year old. I think this is a story about a despicable 15-20 year old. This kid could be playing NHL hockey (if he were good enough to) right now if he had done the things necessary to make real restitution. True, meaningful actions that showed an understanding for how depraved his behavior was. And he's done little to nothing besides try and hide behind some team mandated community service and his agent, unless there's something out there his side hasn't put out there yet, which seems unlikely given the stakes of the situation. I think that's the story here - he's had 6 years to rehabilitate his image in a world that loves second chances, and he hasn't felt either the desire or obligation to. He's gotten some really terrible advice from the people around him. This kid has done less to try and earn a chance to play in the NHL than most kids in high school do to highlight on their resumes to get into college from a community service/volunteer standpoint (obviously not saying that's the only reason they do it, but as the parent of two college age kids, the high schools make it clear they should do it).

Someone should be fired for this.
 

locknload

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One positive thing about this shitshow is, I didnt think I could have more any respect for Patrice and yet he manages to take it to another level. He is in the top pantheon of Boston athletes for both his play and his integrity off the field. Going to be a dusty dusty room when that man retires.
 

cshea

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Someone should be fired for this.
I think someone will, just not sure who. My gut thinks Sweeney is done. He seemed to indicate he wasn’t full on board when he announced the signing on Friday. Cam today pointed the finger back at hockey ops, of which Sweeney is in charge.

Sweeney announced the signing as per usual but Cam announced they cut ties.
 

changer591

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I'm also ready to move on and not quibble about who or where a child gets his first taste of racism. It turns out that I don't really care, whether it be from the playground, or from his family.
And frankly, with what is coming out about his family now, I'm starting to feel exactly the same way as others in that I wasted more breath than was necessary on trying to wish the best for someone who doesn't deserve it at all.
 

TFP

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Contrast that with the shit that came out of Chicago’s locker room leaders’ mouths when they had a chance to stand up in a different situation.

We’re lucky to have Bergeron and his like.
This is absolutely the silver lining in all of this shit sandwich. The players could not have handled this better and absolute kudos to them, they are backing up their words with actions. Bergeron continues to impress in every way as a leader and a person.
 

joe dokes

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Contrast that with the shit that came out of Chicago’s locker room leaders’ mouths when they had a chance to stand up in a different situation.

We’re lucky to have Bergeron and his like.
He *definitely* ripped Neely/Sweeney new ones over this in private.
 

tims4wins

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One positive thing about this shitshow is, I didnt think I could have more any respect for Patrice and yet he manages to take it to another level. He is in the top pantheon of Boston athletes for both his play and his integrity off the field. Going to be a dusty dusty room when that man retires.
Came in to post this. A captain’s captain.
 

Zososoxfan

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It's easy to be cynical about, well damn near everything these days, but I think it says something that the players and the fans both gave a hard no on this whole situation. It's also something that a club has to respond to the fans and players these days. I don't know--I guess I'm just slightly encouraged that a horribad situation got made slightly better, even if in a post hoc fashion.
 

RIFan

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Another aspect of this is it really exposes Neely and Sweeney's lack of media savvy. They keep decision making to a small tight knit group who doesn't leak. If they had properly cultivated some members of the media they could have easily leaked a trial balloon and quickly learned what a mistake this was. It's just one more reason why a leadership change is needed.
 

burstnbloom

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Strong disagree. That's a parent thing.
I'm 43 years old, so this is a while back, but I watched a black and white movie on HBO when I was 7 or 8 and they used the n-word A LOT in the movie. I can't remember what it was, maybe Huck Finn? i dont know, nevertheless I had never heard the word before and it stuck. I said the word out loud in front of my parents a day or two later and they immediately sat me down and wanted to understand why I said it. Then they told me what it meant and why it was bad in a way that I could understand it and I have loathed the word and the people who use it from that moment. My guess is Mitch Miller's dad never bothered to have a talk like that.
 

Yo La Tengo

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I sure hope Bergeron (or Krejci) doesn't see this front office failure as a reason to balk at a potential one year deal next year.
 

burstnbloom

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As always, @Myt1 proves himself much more adapt at [strike]being a loser[/strike] being much better at analyzing words for flaws/weaknesses in those words.

I tried connecting a few pieces of information and assumed that otherwise non racist people wouldn’t set their careers on fire for someone who, at least at one point in his life, is clearly a piece of shit (the articles author, the management agency, the fucking Bruins).

But I was wrong, and I expended SoSHial capital on someone who seemingly doesn’t deserve it. That’s on me.

Apologies to anyone I got into it with in regards to this kid. While I stand behind my belief in second chances for kids, this was the wrong person to use it on.

Anyways. His father seems like a real piece of work.

View: https://twitter.com/iankennedyck/status/1589430016840204291?s=46&t=_XkajB9KralaOcKXOrYz0g
I think you have earned the capital around here that most assumed you were on the other side of the argument for the right reasons. The kids a piece of shit but exercising caution before condemning someone isn't a flaw. To your point, he was just undeserving of that open mindedness.

Through the whole thing, the idea that there was all this stuff he had done, none of which had been specified or validated, seemed insanely fishy. If all of a person's actions seem self serving and evidence of that "work" would serve him positively, then you'd expect he'd have someone come forward out of a sense of self preservation. The only thing we ever got was his agent with a statement full of lawyer speak and some of those named loudly refuting those claims.

Anyway - we are through it. I think Neely did a reasonable job of showing shame and contrition for their process today. It's clear that part is broken and it's clear that he feels like he was lied to by someone. I just don't know who. There's no way to properly handle a massive PR fuck up like this but saying you're sorry and admitting your organization did something stupid for stupid reasons is a good start.
 

FL4WL3SS

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This is the last thing I'll say on this topic and then I'm onto St. Louis.

I don't think anyone should get fired, but I expect (nay DEMAND) that the Bruins use this as a beacon for positivity and inclusion. I want to see a program of outreach started immediately against bullying, showing that 1) we can all learn from our mistakes and come out better people unlike the Millers and 2) highlight the amazing work the players have already done.
 

cornwalls@6

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I’m cautiously ok with the signing. What he did, repeatedly, was absolutely reprehensible. And he has to own it. But I also think his age, for all of the incidents, is a mitigating factor to some degree. And probably also speaks to him having had some pretty awful parenting. As others have noted, he’s not going to sniff Boston this season. A lower profile environment like Providence could be the right place to continue showing his commitment to changing and growing as a person, beyond his legal obligations. I would hope and expect the Bruins will require him to have a meaningful and sustained involvement with groups dedicated to fighting racism and bullying among young people. If he can do that in a genuine, sincere way, and if he performs well on the ice, it could be a very nice redemption story when he gets promoted to the big club. And if we are to ever truly get on the other side of these issues in American, redemption of those who’ve strayed is going to have to be a part of it. If he fails to do those things, then the Bruins should, and I suspect will, cut bait on him immediately. Either way, I don’t really agree that signing him torpedos all the good will the organization has built up over the years. But rather, I think it’s an acceptable risk to take with some of that capital.
Welp, wish I had this one back. The perils of commenting on these things in real time, while information is still changing and coming through, I guess. Mea culpa. It's pretty clear now there are serious doubts as to his remorse, and whether he has taken any meaningful steps towards change and growth. And also pretty clear there are no doubts as to how awful his family is, and how terribly they've conducted themselves on his behalf. I'm glad the Bruins eventually did the correct thing, but what a complete shit show of incompetence and tone deafness on their part to even go down that rabbit hole, without doing way more due diligence than they did. I'm not sure I agree it tarnishes everything the front office has ever done, and squanders all good will. But they took a hit with this, for sure. And have a not insignificant amount of fence mending to do in their own right. Lastly, as usual, the league office covered themselves in zero glory as well here.
 

Granite Sox

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Can’t remember where I heard it (98.5 this morning?), but the CEO of the team’s jersey sponsor Rapid 7 is African-American, and may also have a son with some challenges. Allegedly he expressed his displeasure to the Bruins, so when Neely cites some of the unexpected backlash, he may have gotten an earful from sponsors in addition to the locker room. In addition to the moral repugnance of it all, when the Jacobs family hears that $$ are potentially at risk, they probably step in.
 

JOBU

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Strong disagree. That's a parent thing.
Just catching up. But I have an embarrassing story from my youth that touches on this. I grew up in central ct, white upper/middle class town. Barely any black people in this town. I played baseball. There was one black kid in the league. When I was around 13/14 years old I heard some of my teammates calling him a name that rhymes with nuke and starts with an ‘s’. My thought at the time was “that’s kind of a cool nickname.” Next time the kid comes up… I’m out there at shortstop and I start calling out his “nickname”. I had no idea what I was actually saying. My coach yelled at me to knock it off. I was pretty confused as I had no idea why coach would be mad. He never explained to me why he yelled… looking back on it I wished he would have. It wasn’t until probably a few years later when I realized what exactly I said. Definitely an “oh shit” moment. I’m obviously mortified looking back at it now. Anyway that’s a word that my parents would never use in that context. Sometimes it’s not a “parent thing.” Just saying.
 
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FL4WL3SS

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Just catching up. But I have an embarrassing story from my youth that touches on this. I grew up in central ct, white upper/middle class town. Barely any black people in this town. I played baseball. There was one black kid in the league. When I was around 13/14 years old I heard some of my teammates calling him a name that rhymes with nuke and starts with an ‘s’. My thought at the time was “that’s kind of a cool nickname.” Next time the kid comes up… I’m out there at shortstop and I start calling out his “nickname”. I had no idea what I was actually saying. My coach yelled at me to knock it off. I was pretty confused as I had no idea why coach would be mad. He never explained to me why he yelled… looking back on it I wished he would have. It wasn’t until probably a few years later when I realized what exactly I said. Definitely an “oh shit” moment. I’m obviously mortified looking back at it now. Anyway that’s a word that my parents would never use in that context. Sometimes it’s not a “parent thing.” Just saying.
You can't see the difference between your scenario and Mitchell's?

Sometimes it's not the parents, but most of the time it is.
 

Boston Brawler

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So, here are most of his statements, broken down. Even allowing for the fact that he’s certainly not a communications professional, I don’t have as positive a view on his statements as others. Part of that is the shitty writer. But I just don’t think he comes off well at all.



OK. So, what has he done?



So, for starters, a court ordered apology is, definitionally, not “in the immediate aftermath of the incident.” This seems to be the interested reporter carrying water for him, rather than puffery by Miller himself, but it’s nonsense.

Next, I mean, do we even give credit for a court-ordered apology? It’s not like he volunteered and did it on his own.



OK. So, tried to add him on Snapchat.



This isn’t the only usage of the word “friends,”and it seems both completely incongruous as to the behavior at issue and the mother’s version of things. Yet Miller repeats the usage, such that it’s possibly a tell of coached behavior or self-interested narrative deflection that misrepresents both the scope of the bad conduct as well as the relationship between the two.



Again, “We we’re friends, and we could be friends again,” seems to badly misstate reality in which a Court gave you a stay away order and the kid’s mother says he’s emotionally traumatized and scarred. It’s possible that this is self-deception, but it feels worse than that.



Rhetorical primacy.


So, here’s how it affected him again. And he also sees a counselor now. So, we’re up to a court mandated apology and some counseling.



So, yeah, it’s really difficult to see this as anything but clumsy narrative deflection/gaslighting. It’s not just Miller, here. It’s “these boys.” It’s “always playing around.” We can make an allowance that the guy writing this is bad at what he does, but, if Miller’s and his mom’s quotes are accurate, they’re very likely practiced and intended to minimize the problem as an unfortunate incident between good friends.


OK, so what was the “above and beyond”?

Court ordered 25 hours of community service.

That’s like . . . three weeks of being a Little League coach. It’s less time than some posters here have spent complaining about the 2015 draft. And it’s court-ordered.

So, what else?



OK. So his former coach notes that he participated in what at first blush seems a lot like the Bruins going and visiting Children’s Hospital, right? What was the scope and time commitment? I have to think that, if it were truly substantial, the specifics would have been noted by one of the many interested parties. Given that they weren’t, this feels a lot like, “He went along on our soup kitchen and nursing home and high school visits.”



So, I have this thing about kitchen sink argumentation: when you pile on shitty arguments, it calls into question the credibility of your whole narrative. So what we have here is Miller “working with” a teammate who has a certain impressive sounding credential for borrowing, in the hopes of doing something that he didn’t actually do, because we certainly would have been told if he did.


:eyeroll:


Continue what work, exactly?



Anyone got this letter? Because I see:
1. Court mandated apology;
2. Court mandated community service;
3. Participation in team community service at a rate similar to others; and
4. Seeing counselors.



“North Dakota lied to me and protected themselves instead. NHL teams are protecting themselves as well.”



So, I guess other people who interviewed him feel much the same way I do when I read this article written by someone who, admittedly, is doing Miller no favors.



This article is super long on letting Miller try to take credit for stuff he never ended up doing.



Jesus, dude. Read the fucking room. Denial of agency (“what happened to me and Isaiah,”) and description of what he, Miller, had to suffer.



Obviously, I come at this stuff from a certain tradition and method and view it through a certain lens. But this really does not strike me as a good article for Miller.

Edit: And, apparently stuff happened as I was breaking this down. Viewing Newley’s statement charitably, it seems that the org was stupid/lazy/negligent enough to take Miller’s dishonest framing of the incident as accurate?!?
Thanks for this. It's a great, rational analysis on this situation and the statements made by a lot of the parties involved.
 

JimD

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I'm a casual hockey fan, so this may be ill-informed, but I've long felt that the Bruins have the worst front office of Boston's four major sports teams. Obviously they have been a very competitive team so maybe I'm not giving Neely enough credit, but I struggle to point to any organizational aspect where it feels like 'This is where the Bruins have an advantage over the rest of the league'. What am I missing here?
 

TFP

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but I struggle to point to any organizational aspect where it feels like 'This is where the Bruins have an advantage over the rest of the league'.
The one advantage they have is signing 2 HOF players to well below market deals over the last 10+ years. That’s about it.
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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Just catching up. But I have an embarrassing story from my youth that touches on this. I grew up in central ct, white upper/middle class town. Barely any black people in this town. I played baseball. There was one black kid in the league. When I was around 13/14 years old I heard some of my teammates calling him a name that rhymes with nuke and starts with an ‘s’. My thought at the time was “that’s kind of a cool nickname.” Next time the kid comes up… I’m out there at shortstop and I start calling out his “nickname”. I had no idea what I was actually saying. My coach yelled at me to knock it off. I was pretty confused as I had no idea why coach would be mad. He never explained to me why he yelled… looking back on it I wished he would have. It wasn’t until probably a few years later when I realized what exactly I said. Definitely an “oh shit” moment. I’m obviously mortified looking back at it now. Anyway that’s a word that my parents would never use in that context. Sometimes it’s not a “parent thing.” Just saying.
I just sent you a PM because for the life of me I couldn't figure out the "nickname" and then as soon as I sent it I figured it out and was shook.

The coach failed you there by not telling you why that was offensive. That's the adult's job. So maybe it's not a parent thing but it is most certainly a trusted adult thing.
 

Jettisoned

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That’s being charitable. More critically, there is a lot here suggesting that they just didn’t give a damn. That they intentionally ignored the giant, well established red flag and based this entirely on a talent evaluation, cynically hoping/expecting any blowback to be minor or easily waved off. If that’s the case, then this failure imo goes beyond bad management. It’s a failure to be decent human beings. And that sucks.
The third possibility is that they viewed Miller's past behavior as an indication that he would be able to get under people's skin and be a pest like Sean Avery or Steve Ott.
 

Auger34

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I just read the article in The Athletic on this situation and, man, do they look bad. Neely is 100% trying to distance himself from this and even though the byline says Fluto, it may as well say Cam Neely.

As I said up thread, I am not a huge hockey fan. I check in on this board periodically and try to gather some information so my next statement may be completely off base…

But isn’t it kind of a trend for Neely to throw everyone else under the bus while not talking any blame or responsibility for anything? That seems to be the one common thread with this team recently
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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Here's an honest question that I've been asking in my head. Why do the Bruins need to talk to the victim's family? Like...does anyone think that, no matter if Miller has changed his ways and actually volunteered and became a fine upstanding voice for the disabled and minorities, that the victim OR the victim's family should forgive and forget? I woudn't think they would (and it certainly sounds like the mother will never, ever forgive him no matter what he does), nor should they be obligated to. What he did was horrible and disgusting, and if that happened to my child, I would forever wish harm to the abuser no matter what they did to better themselves.
That being said, not digging deeper into the claims that were made by Miller and his agent...I actually think that is a bigger stain on Neely and Sweeney than not talking to the family of the victim.
If you read the mom’s statement from back around the time of the Coyotes thing, she implies that there was another bully who did genuinely apologize and whom the son forgave. (See post 12) So I don’t really think the Bruins should have assumed anything about what the family might say. If nothing else they would have been able to get a first hand account of the facts.
 

EvilEmpire

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I think the 'talking to the family' thing is very simple.

If your team really wants to understand all facets of the issue and ensure you aren't missing important details based on what the player and his management team are telling you, you also talk to the family of the victimized child.

If your team really wants to sign the player but maintain a certain level of ambiguity if things go sideways, you don't talk to the family of the victimized child.

I think the Bruins made a conscious choice to maintain a certain level of ignorance. And for as bad as they looked for how things turned out, it could have been so much worse if they had talked to the victim's family and then still signed Miller. I doubt it was an oversight.

Glad Boston eventually did the right thing. Credit to the guys in that locker room. Quality people.
 

TSC

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I'm glad Mitchell is no longer part of the organization - but I also hope the Bruins will still work with him towards redemption.

This is now twice in two years this man (he's not a kid anymore) has been within grasp of a life long dream, and lost it because of his own actions - but also a failure of both Arizona and Boston to do even the barest of investigation.

That is not necessarily conducive to his growth, and may, if anything - lead him to further entrench into previously held beliefs. It will also likely have a massive negative psychological effect on him.

The Bruins should eat the bullet of helping his rehabilitation, mentally and publicly as part of their atonement for their dumb decision to sign him.
 

Toe Nash

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As others have said, this really raises questions about how decisions are made with the team.

If this is an organization that values leadership and intangibles, what are they doing in their scouting process to understand that? This debacle shows that they barely even investigated Miller's background (or they brushed aside anything bad). What do they do about other draft picks or signings? Obviously very few prospects have some kind of history like Miller but you'd think there would be some kind of process to understand the person before they bring them into the organization. Or did they just get lucky that their current stars are also pretty exceptional people?
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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I'm glad Mitchell is no longer part of the organization - but I also hope the Bruins will still work with him towards redemption.

This is now twice in two years this man (he's not a kid anymore) has been within grasp of a life long dream, and lost it because of his own actions - but also a failure of both Arizona and Boston to do even the barest of investigation.

That is not necessarily conducive to his growth, and may, if anything - lead him to further entrench into previously held beliefs. It will also likely have a massive negative psychological effect on him.

The Bruins should eat the bullet of helping his rehabilitation, mentally and publicly as part of their atonement for their dumb decision to sign him.
Aren't they already eating that bullet buy giving him the contract money and then not requiring any services from him in return?

I don't think the Bruins should go out of their way to do anything for Miller. He's got a chance now, with this money, to actually do something productive with his life. He can go to therapy. He can engage in social outreach. He can take classes. He can travel and see more of the world than his toxic little corner. If hockey doesn't work out, he now has money to go earn a degree, or a trade, or open a small business. It's highly unlikely he'll do any of those things because by every account and appearance he and his family and his enablers are the most terrible type of people imaginable, but hey, maybe miracles do happen.

Giving him any more resources than they already have isn't the right thing to do, IMO, because Isiah and his family would rightfully think that he's being given yet another opportunity. He's had plenty and done nothing with them.

My actual guess at what he does now is attempt to go play in the KHL.
 

changer591

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I'm glad Mitchell is no longer part of the organization - but I also hope the Bruins will still work with him towards redemption.

This is now twice in two years this man (he's not a kid anymore) has been within grasp of a life long dream, and lost it because of his own actions - but also a failure of both Arizona and Boston to do even the barest of investigation.

That is not necessarily conducive to his growth, and may, if anything - lead him to further entrench into previously held beliefs. It will also likely have a massive negative psychological effect on him.

The Bruins should eat the bullet of helping his rehabilitation, mentally and publicly as part of their atonement for their dumb decision to sign him.
More like inaction. I wonder if people's view of him would have been different had any of those organizations that his agent said he worked with came out and said "yeah, he came in every day and contributed and even stuck around after his court-mandated community service time was done."
Ultimately, I think it was very telling that the only input that was given from anyone was "yeah no, he didn't actually talk to us" or even just dead silence. There's literally like no one whose input matters in the long-run that has spoken up for him. That's tough to get past for me now.
 

4 6 3 DP

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The bullying occurred in 2016. We are at 6 years at this point. It's cost him college hockey and a shot in he NHL and he still isn't interested in anything besides lip service. Why would the Bruins or anyone be responsible for getting this adult to do anything? He can't be bothered to do more than try and add his victim on Snapchat.
 

cshea

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Miller’s agent went on a podcast and shared a very different story than Meyer-Crother.

View: https://twitter.com/petertenkrat/status/1589778874933530624?s=46&t=w5P8F9D7w03pnPo1fYv5Rg


The truth is probably somewhere in the middle between the two but the Bruins obviously heard what they wanted to hear from Miller’s side and didn’t bother with any secondary confirmation.

The fact they didn’t call the mother is mind-blowing. She was front and center when the Coyotes drafted him. The only way this was ever going to work was by getting her on board. And they didn’t think they needed to call her.
 

joe dokes

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I think the 'talking to the family' thing is very simple.

If your team really wants to understand all facets of the issue and ensure you aren't missing important details based on what the player and his management team are telling you, you also talk to the family of the victimized child.

If your team really wants to sign the player but maintain a certain level of ambiguity if things go sideways, you don't talk to the family of the victimized child.

I think the Bruins made a conscious choice to maintain a certain level of ignorance. And for as bad as they looked for how things turned out, it could have been so much worse if they had talked to the victim's family and then still signed Miller. I doubt it was an oversight.

Glad Boston eventually did the right thing. Credit to the guys in that locker room. Quality people.
I think there's another scenario. The team wants to sign the player and, in a literal sense, nothing the victim's family says will matter because "of course, they're gonna say that." But, out of common decency, they tell the family what's going on.
Regardless, that the team was somehow surprised at the blowback is, IMO, the biggest indictment of their competence. All the other stuff, at some level or another is or was debatable. But was there not one person in the organ-eye-zay-shun that said, "how are we going to respond to the inevitable firestorm, other than sending Sweeney out there?" What ended up happening was probably within the 90% likelihood category. And they were somehow surprised? From an overall competence perspective, that's even worse than the decision to sign Miller in the first place.

I can't even come up with an analogy. Maybe a gas appliance repairman who is surprised at what happens when he uses a lighter to examine the inside of the gas pipe that seems clogged and doesn't turn off the suppply line?
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

Found no thrill on Blueberry Hill
SoSH Member
Sep 9, 2008
42,297
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Calling the mom a liar seems like a poor strategy -- even if the mom did not know certain things the agent is failing to read the room I think.

There is a path for this guy to play in the NHL. But he's going to have to put in the work. Seems like "you got it all wrong" is not really going to work other than perhaps to allow people that are adjacent to the kid try to save face.
 

joe dokes

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Jul 18, 2005
30,247
Miller’s agent went on a podcast and shared a very different story than Meyer-Crother.

View: https://twitter.com/petertenkrat/status/1589778874933530624?s=46&t=w5P8F9D7w03pnPo1fYv5Rg


The truth is probably somewhere in the middle between the two but the Bruins obviously heard what they wanted to hear from Miller’s side and didn’t bother with any secondary confirmation.

The fact they didn’t call the mother is mind-blowing. She was front and center when the Coyotes drafted him. The only way this was ever going to work was by getting her on board. And they didn’t think they needed to call her.
If the Bruins are smart (yeah, I know), Neely's words yesterday were the final ones from the team management on the subject.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

Found no thrill on Blueberry Hill
SoSH Member
Sep 9, 2008
42,297
AZ
I think there's another scenario. The team wants to sign the player and, in a literal sense, nothing the victim's family says will matter because "of course, they're gonna say that." But, out of common decency, they tell the family what's going on.
Regardless, that the team was somehow surprised at the blowback is, IMO, the biggest indictment of their competence. All the other stuff, at some level or another is or was debatable. But was there not one person in the organ-eye-zay-shun that said, "how are we going to respond to the inevitable firestorm, other than sending Sweeney out there?" What ended up happening was probably within the 90% likelihood category. And they were somehow surprised? From an overall competence perspective, that's even worse than the decision to sign Miller in the first place.

I can't even come up with an analogy. Maybe a gas appliance repairman who is surprised at what happens when he uses a lighter to examine the inside of the gas pipe that seems clogged and doesn't turn off the suppply line?
To me the fundamental failure here is an ability to understand the seriousness of issues surrounding race, disability and bullying. In the end, that's the core problem.

I think it's a mistake to underestimate laziness. And laziness is one of those things that people never want to admit, so they will cop to worse stuff to avoid having to admit it. I think they thought the stakes were low, checked a box, and moved on during a busy time. It happens. You'd like to think that the organization that is the steward for something that we all find very important would not be lazy. But everyone gets lazy, on every job. Even astronauts and surgeons. Someone was too interested in wordle, or some family drama, or some other shit they had do in the 100 email they got that morning to do a good job. It's not necessarily indicative or organizational incompetence or structural problems. It's just one of those things that happens in a job where you have a zillion things to do and have to triage them.

This was a triage error, is my guess.

Ok, so what do we think about this? Well, laziness creeps in when you think the stakes are low or nobody is watching. And that's the fundamental problem -- they thought the stakes were low. They did not understand the seriousness of these issues. They didn't even get to the point of analyzing blowback or perception because in the minds of these men, they do not quite feel the problem, of race, of bullying, of disability. When confronted with it squarely, they understand it on an intellectual level, but it's not in their bones in a way that they can say "oh, shit, we need to be careful here." Unfortunately, this is a problem in hockey, not just in any one organization.
And the good news that all this has brought out is that there do seem to be some players in the organization that understand the issues better than most.
 

joe dokes

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 18, 2005
30,247
To me the fundamental failure here is an ability to understand the seriousness of issues surrounding race, disability and bullying. In the end, that's the core problem.

I think it's a mistake to underestimate laziness. And laziness is one of those things that people never want to admit, so they will cop to worse stuff to avoid having to admit it. I think they thought the stakes were low, checked a box, and moved on during a busy time. It happens. You'd like to think that the organization that is the steward for something that we all find very important would not be lazy. But everyone gets lazy, on every job. Even astronauts and surgeons. Someone was too interested in wordle, or some family drama, or some other shit they had do in the 100 email they got that morning to do a good job. It's not necessarily indicative or organizational incompetence or structural problems. It's just one of those things that happens in a job where you have a zillion things to do and have to triage them.

This was a triage error, is my guess.

Ok, so what do we think about this? Well, laziness creeps in when you think the stakes are low or nobody is watching. And that's the fundamental problem -- they thought the stakes were low. They did not understand the seriousness of these issues. They didn't even get to the point of analyzing blowback or perception because in the minds of these men, they do not quite feel the problem, of race, of bullying, of disability. When confronted with it squarely, they understand it on an intellectual level, but it's not in their bones in a way that they can say "oh, shit, we need to be careful here." Unfortunately, this is a problem in hockey, not just in any one organization.
And the good news that all this has brought out is that there do seem to be some players in the organization that understand the issues better than most.
Well said. Following on from the bolded at the end...Neely and Sweeney were both players. Is their short-sightedness due to era in which *they* were raised (hockey-wise)? When "boys will be boys" was the default position at all levels of hockey?
 

cshea

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Nov 15, 2006
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306, row 14
His agent put his neck on the line and of course also wants to get paid. Like any agent he's going to spin things in the way most favorable to his client.
Absolutely. The Bruins had a responsibility to confirm what he and the family were telling him and they didn’t. They lapped it up because they wanted the player.
 

changer591

Member
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Jul 19, 2005
971
Shrewsbury, MA
Man, I don't even know what to believe anymore. What the agent says is now directly in conflict with with the mother said...I guess the only thing that would make me decide on way or the other at this point is someone to interview Isaiah and see what he actually thinks. What an absolute mess.